The Sign
by DrowsyPoet
Summary: Chloe is deaf, and Beca learns sign language to communicate with her.
1. Library Adventures

**Chapter one: Out of his league**

Beca loved the library…well, Beca loved most things about the library. She loved how there was always free wifi and AC, the upstairs loft had ridiculously comfortable couches and snack machines. Not to mention that the library had an awesome music section with CDs from ever era as well as some pretty good new stuff. Their electronics and dubstep section needed some serious work, but they'd get there eventually. But anyway, what Beca really loved about the library was that every Monday and Wednesday after her philosophy class there was a cute redhead that liked to sit in the corner armchair upstairs with a cup of tea and a book. Not that Beca was following her or anything…because that was totally not the case. The first few times she'd gone to the library after class was to work on mixes because her roommate Kimmy-Jin had banished her from their dorm room. She soon found out that she was mixing at too high a volume to be considered "library appropriate," so she could either snag a private study room or just mix on the quad when it was nice out. But…Beca had found the library, with its infinite snack options and coffee opportunities a welcome break to being constantly shushed my Kimmy-Jin for breathing too loud. So, like usual, Beca found herself in the library on a Monday afternoon, shuffling through the libraries' CD selection. The radio station had tons of CD's, cassettes, and records, but she could only download the station's music into to her laptop when she was working the booth alone. Luke was super protective of the station's music collection, and he definitely had a right to be. Beca had come across a first edition Beetles album while snooping through the stations basement at two in the morning.

"Hey Becaw!" a male voice whisper shouted Beca out of her thoughts as she was reaching for a David Guetta album stuck between two shelves that she'd been trying to find for the better part of an hour. Her head jerked and bumped the shelf above her not-so-gently.

"Shit" she muttered, retracting her hand to rub her head "what do you want Jesse?" she grumbled, narrowing her eyes at her friend. He grinned sheepishly at her

"Come on Becs, Is that any way to talk to your best friend?" he chastised, his sheepish expression turning into a wide grin as she cracked a small smile at him.

"No. What do you want Jess?" Beca asked again. Jesse's face lit up as he remembered why he was looking for Beca in the first place.

"Oh yeah!" he held up a flier for Beca to see "the small movie theatre a block off of campus is doing a special showing of 'A walk to remember,' and we have to go see it." Beca wrinkled her nose

"Thanks but no thanks." She shot back immediately "I'm working at the station from eight tonight to two in the morning...and even if I didn't…that movie sounds like a walk that I need to forget."

"Ha ha ha" Jesse laughed dryly at the brunette's pun "I know there's a heart in you somewhere Beca, with real emotions and everything." Beca rolled her eyes

"Rrrriiiight" she cracked a half smile at Jesse, which of course the boy returned with a huge grin.

"Oh hey" Jesse said, picking a CD off one of the shelves "Can I borrow your philosophy notes from last Wednesday, I'm studying for a test next week and I missed that day."

"Yeah, no problem." Beca led Jesse through the rows of neatly shelved CDs to the chair she's dumped her worn messenger bag on. She grabbed her philosophy binder and took a few pages out, holding them out for Jesse to take. She paused and looked up at him when he stgill hadn't taken her notes moments later.

"Jess?" his head snapped back to her.

"What are you-" Beca's eyes went across the room to here Jesse had been looking. The redhead girl was in her usual overstuffed arm chair. She had her nose in the book, with her usual cup of tea resting on the table beside her chair. She'd worn her hair down today.

"Wow, she's hot." Jesse said, still staring. Beca shot him a glare that he didn't even notice "I'm going to go ask her out." Beca bit the inside of cheek. The redhead was way…WAY out of Jesse's league, so she wasn't worried that the redhead would say yes…but she was jealous anyway. She did nothing but watch as Jesse made his way over to the chair where the redhead was sitting. Beca could just barely make out what Jesse was saying. She could tell he was saying hi, and his hand gestures let her know he was introducing himself to the girl. Beca watched on with slight anxiety as the girl didn't even put her book down. Beca bit her lip. Jesse tapped the redhead's shoulder. She lowered her book and smiled at him. He started again with the introduction when the ginger smiled apologetically. She put a slip of paper in her book and began signing with both hands. Beca's eyes widened as she realized the girl was deaf. Jesse nodded and smiled at the ginger even though he had no idea what the redhead was trying to communicate to him and then walked back to where Beca was still standing.

"I think it went well." Jesse said, sporting a broad smile. Beca quirked an eyebrow, searching his face for sarcasm but found none.

"Okay Jess. Well…Uh…I guess I'll see you later, Jess. Have fun with your _walk to remember_" Beca slung her rugged school bag over her right shoulder and headed to the nonfiction sectionof the library. She skimmed the subjects as she went along. Languages…Spanish…French…American sign language. Boom. Her thumb traced the spines of the books before landing on _Beginners American Sign Language._ "perfect." She muttered, grabbing it off of the shelf.


	2. Shout it out

**I forgot to mention this in the first chapter, but this fic was inspired by "That's a good sign" by hurriCADE, which is one of my favorite stories!**

**Thanks for reading!**

"Luke, I brought burgers!" Beca called out as she stepped in the door of the radio station. She threw her messenger bag in the general direction of a nearby table and wandered around the corner, greasy fast food bag in her hand.

"Hey Becky!" Luke greeted, stepping out of the booth to grab one of the burgers that Beca had brought with her. "Thanks" he added as an afterthought, sneaking a few of Beca's fries from the bag as well

"No problem" she returned with an amused grin, watching Luke take a huge bite.

"Oh By the way" he said around his mouthful of food "I know it's sort of short notice, but I'll be gone for a few days over spring break and since Jesse is an idiot, would you mind running the booth?" Beca tried in vain to hide her grin.

"Yes!" she agreed almost too fast. She felt her cheeks flush slightly at her enthusiasm "I mean... uh yeah, yeah I could do that." Luke smirked at her, his mouth still full of half chewed burger. Beca wrinkled her nose slightly in distaste as the sight.

"I'm trusting you Becky" he warned "Don't screw this up. If it goes okay I might let you run the booth a bit more." Beca processed what Luke had just said. The idea of choosing the songs for the station was more than appealing to her.

"No worries Captain." she assured Luke, giving him a fake salute "I'm on it." he grinned as he grabbed his keys and phone out of the booth, moving out of the doorway so she could make her way in and give him room to get out.

"Well, I'm gonna head out" he said "but I'll be listening." he shot her a quick wink and headed out the door of the station, locking the door behind himself. Beca set up a few songs to play back to back so she'd have about 20 minutes before she'd have to pick another song to play. She grabbed her bag from the table by the front door and took it with her into the book. She pulled out a few of her textbooks before sitting in Luke's beloved wheely-chair. She paused, burger half way to her mouth as she noticed a book that didn't fit her curriculum, the American Sign Language book she'd picked up at the library. She put her food down and flipped open the front cover of the book. There were diagrams for how to shape letters with your hands, the whole alphabet. Beca's eyes roamed the page. Pinky up for "I"... pinky swoop for "J," 4 fingers up with a thumb across the palm for "B."

Beca flipped the page, taking a bite of her now cold dinner. She chewed thoughtfully, looking at the diagrams for "you" and "I." She copied the motions subconsciously, gesturing towards and away from herself. She flipped the page and saw pictures of someone signing adjectives. There was tired, hungry, happy, and sad. Beca munched quietly while reading

*Buzz*

Her phone brought her out of her thoughts. She pulled it out of her pocket.

NEW MESSAGE FROM LUKE.

"Put a song on, Becky." Beca blinked a few times at the screen of her phone before realizing the songs she's set to play had run out and that she needed to play another. She quickly scrambled to the controls and put on the first song that came up. The sound booth was instantly filled with an electronic riff.

_You shout it out_  
><em> But I can't hear a word you say...<em>

_I'm talking loud not saying much._

_ I'm criticized_  
><em> But all your bullets ricochet...<em>

_Shoot me down, but I get up._

Beca sat back in the wheely-chair and typed a quick reply to Luke. She sighed, running a hand over her face and shut the Sign Language book she's been looking at, opting to prepare more music instead. Half an hour later she'd played a few oldies but goodies, several mixes of her own, and an instrumental trio piece with cello, piano, and violin. She'd been thinking... really hard about what it would be like not to hear. To never hear another catchy melody, or a minor chord, or major chord... Music was one of those things that just had so much **feeling **behind it. Beca could never imagine not hearing. As much as she'd hate to ever admit it to Jesse, music even had a huge impact on how she watched movies. She would take it to her grave, but she thought that movie scoring was one of the coolest uses of musical tonalities that Beca could ever imagine. Jesse had made her watch Alfred Hitchcock's "Physco" with him, and the theme track was INCREDIBLE. It builkt suspense, drama, everything. Music is Beca's life. To not hear something so important to her... that without it was simply unimaginable. She put on another song before picking up another book. Her shift at the station flew by quickly. She finished her music theory homework and tried reading up on a few chapters of her economics that she'd been assigned. When 2 am rolled around she made sure to set enough songs to play until Like came back in in the morning and went home...well, back to her dorm room.

Beca got up again at 9:00 and headed to her music theory class, then made her way across campus to get to College Algebra, and then practically ran ALL the way back across campus once again to make it to her Economics class on time, then headed back to a dorm for a nap. On her way from the business building to Baker's Hall she noticed the redheaded girl from the library coming out of the English Building walking arm in arm with a tall blond girl. They were walking step in step, both looking happy. Beca froze... trying and failing not to read too much into the situation. D_id she have a girlfriend?_


	3. First Encounters

"Becaw?" Jesse asked quietly, as not to startle her. "What are you doing?" Beca sat up quickly, slamming shut the book she had been reading from. Beca had been missing since their shift began, and after about a half an hour Jesse noticed and started looking, before realizing he'd find her in her usual spot underneath one of the tables at the station that had been dubbed "Beca's Table." due to her tendency to hide underneath it to mix.

"Owww" she groaned, hand going up to rub the spot on the back of her head that she'd bumped snapping her head up too quickly to look at Jesse. "Ugh... What do you want Jess?" Her words held no venom, so Jesse knew that the DJ was just being grouchy for the sake of being grouchy instead of being actually annoyed at him. He smiled at the use of his nickname and offered her a hand to get off the floor. She took hold of his arm and used it as leverage to pull herself up.

"Oh, I was just wondering if you were going to let me stack all the CDs myself this shift." He joked. Beca tucked the book she had been reading into her pocket, hoping Jesse wouldn't see what it was or ask her about it.

"No, I suppose not." she retorted, cracking a smile, "Let's go." After Beca made it clear at the beginning of the semester that she wasn't interested in Jesse, or any other guy for that matter, romantically, they'd became really close friends. They made their way over to the cart if CDs Luke had left for them to stack. Instantly Beca's mind was working in overtime. The selections they were stacking were especially fantastic: Frank Sinatra, David Guetta, Cream, Jazmine Sullivan, and Eric Clapton. Even just looking at the album covers she could already hear how some of the songs that would blend almost perfectly.

_'The redhead can't hear them'_ a voice in her head reminded her as she was thinking about the music in front of her. She shook her head vigorously in hopes to quiet her thoughts. _'I've got to learn her name.'_ She reprimanded herself.

"Becs? You good?" Jesse asked. She didn't bother to correct his use of the the childhood pet name that she wasn't very fond of and opted instead to respond to his question

"Yeah, I'm fine." the rest of their shift was pretty normal, she and Jesse joked around a bit and talked about going to see a movie. Well... Jesse talked about going to see a movie while Beca said no repeatedly to every movie option. In spite of her refusal to see a movie with Jesse, it definitely got her thinking. Most DVDs come with the options for subtitles... And that could be cool for people who didn't speak the language the movie was in, or maybe for people that couldn't hear any language at all.

The next day Beca headed to the library after class to look through the movie section, and was greeted by the sight of the cute redhead sitting in her usual chair, with her usual cup of tea, reading. Beca smiled slightly before ducking into the many shelves of foreign films that Barden had. She browsed the DVD cases, her high-school French class knowledge finally serving her some real world purpose as she came across the french section.. She finally stumbled across one that looked interesting: **_La Belle et la Bête_** (the original beauty and the beast film adaptation from 1946). She pulled it off the shelf and glanced over at the redhead sitting in the corner. Taking a deep breath, Beca made her way over to the overstuffed armchair. 'Now or never' she thought to herself, trying to remember the little bit of sign language she'd learned.

"Hi" she signed semi-gracefully as the redhead looked at her. The ginger's eyes lit up at the use of sign language. Beca pointed at herself to indicate "I" and then signed her name letter by letter "B-E-C-A." The redhead smiled widely. Beca watched as the redhead gestured at herself for "I" and then sighed C-H-L-O-E.

_'Chloe'_ Beca thought to herself_ 'I like that.'_ Beca smiled slightly and raised her hands to sign again.

"You watch movie with me?" Beca signed, raising her pointer finger and bending it twice for a question mark at the end of the sentence. Chloe raised an eyebrow, but accepted the DVD case Beca handed to her, reading the title. She looked back up at Beca, the corners of her lips turning up into a smile. This was one of the first encounters with anyone other than her circle of friends and immediate family that made her feel pretty normal. Beca smiled back and lifted her hands again, spelling out "S-U-B-T-I-T-L-E-S." Chloe found the smile on her face growing as she nodded her head in agreement with the proposed plan. She quickly raised her hand and made the corresponding sign as she mouthed the word "Text." She turned and grabbed a pen from her back pack before reaching out and taking Beca's hand in her own, turning the hand over to write her cell phone number on the other girl's palm. Their eyes met briefly and Chloe squeezed the brunette's hand gently before releasing it. Chloe spoke along quietly with the words that her hands spelled, telling Beca that she had to go, but to text her later to make plans for their movie date. Beca found herself grateful for Chloe's vocalization since her understanding of sign language was limited. The redhead stood and hoisted her bag over her shoulder in one fluid motion, tucking the book she'd been reading under her arm and picking up her cup of tea. After giving Beca a hug, she walked away, leaving the shorter girl watching after her. Beca looked down at the movie in her hand, a wide smile on her face.

**Thanks for reading! Reviews are appreciated! **

**-Drowsy. **


	4. Something New

About a week later Beca found herself outside of Chloe's off campus apartment. It turned out that the blonde that Beca had seen her walking with was evidentially Chloe's roomate. Aubrey, while extremely uptight, was actually pretty awesome... When her personality was matched with Chloe's personality. Beca was fairly chain that Aubrey would be a nightmare on her own, without Chloe's relaxed and happy nature, but there was no way in hell Beca would ever tell her that.

"You must be Beca." Aubrey had said, opening the door. Beca nodded awkwardly, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"Yep." She replied with a small wave of her hand "You must be Aubrey." She could practically feel the blonde's gaze analyzing everything about her in one look like some sort of judgmental scanner.

"Yes." was her crisp reply. They stood in an uncomfortable silence before Aubrey finally opened the door wider and moved aside so that Beca could step inside. "Chloe's in her room, I'll grab her." Aubrey said, gesturing down the hallway "You can sit on the couch if you want."

"Thanks." Beca said, sitting on the edge of the couch as Aubrey disappeared. She came back a few minutes later with a smiling Chloe walking next to her. Beca stood up and smiled.

"H-I." Chloe signed with her right hand, before pulling Beca into a hug. Beca's arms found their way around Chloe's waist, her chin resting on the redhead's shoulder. They held on for a long moment until Beca pulled away at the sound of Aubrey clearing her throat. Chloe turned to the blonde and signed something that Beca didn't understand. The blode smirked slightly in response to Chloe and nodded at her before leaving.

"How you?" Chloe signed, turning to face Beca after Aubrey had made her exit. Beca smiled, glad she knew enough sign language to at least have a basic conversation with Chloe.

"Good." She spoke and signed, figuring that Chloe could probably read her lips as well. Her sign was met with a smile from the redhead. Chloe sat down, patting the cushion next to her for Beca to set. The DJ dropped onto the seat next to Chloe, pulling her messenger bag onto her lap. She reached inside of her bag and pulled out a small whiteboard and a few dry erase markers. Grabbing the blue one, she took the cap off and began to write.

**_My sign language isn't very good... Is it okay if we use this until I get better?_**

She tilted the whiteboard so Chloe could see what she'd written. She watched as Chloe's bright blue eyes followed the neat, block lettered text before moving up to meet her own much darker eyes. Chloe gently took a purple marker from Beca's hand and uncapped it, reaching across the shorter woman slightly to write on the board in a almost messy hybrid of print and cursive.

_Yes! This is great :)_

Beca smiled widely as she wrote another message.

**_Do you want me to put the movie in?_**

Chloe smiled at her and nodded, reaching across Beca to write once more

_Sure, let me make some popcorn._

she handed her marker to Beca and stood up, headed for the kitchen. Beca let out a deep breath and pulled the DVD out of her bag.

45 minutes into the movie Beca found herself enthralled with both the movie... And with the girl next to her. Beca had muted the TV so that she couldn't hear the dialogue, wanting to experience the movie the same way that Chloe would. She could tell that not being able to hear what the actors were saying made her watch their mouths more, as well as their gestures. As she was watching the hand gestures intently, Beca was more than a little surprised to feel a hand slide into hers, and slender fingers fill the gap between her own. Beca bit her lip to try and hide the cheesy smile threatening to overtake her features, and rubbed her thumb gently against Chloe's to let the redhead know of her approval. Chloe tried to ignore the tingly feeling she'd gotten from taking Beca's hand, and instead attempted to focus on reading the subtitles of the movie they were watching. The movie was actually really good, and Chloe was thought Beca's idea to watching a foreign film with subtitles so they'd both be on the same page watching it was really original... not to mention sweet. When the movie finished and the credits started rolling, Chloe slid her hand out of Beca's and reached for the small white board that the brunette had brought with her.

_Do you speak French?_

Beca took a brief moment to decipher Chloe's handwriting since she wasn't used to reading cursive and print at the same time, and then picked up her own marker to respond, the smile that had been on her face since she'd gotten to Chloe's apartment still on her face.

**_A little bit, but it didn't help me much, I muted the sound._**

Chloe caught Beca's eyes with her own and spoke

"Why?" Beca couldn't help but think that her voice was nice. She sounded almost like she had a stuffy nose, or like she was talking through a glass door and the sound was muffled, but she had a nice voice. Beca hadn't really heard deaf people talk before, maybe mouth words or speak along quietly as they signed, but never actually _talk. _Then again, Beca hadn't been around many deaf people before_. _Beca took the whiteboard back from Chloe, their hands brushing together in the shift of possession.

**_So I'd only have the subtitles and body language to understand the story line._**

Chloe nodded, knowing that Beca had done that so they could experience the movie in the same way, which Chloe thought was beyond sweet. Beca raised her hands hesitantly, and began to sign slowly. "D-A-T-E" and then raised her pointer finger, bending it at the knuckle several times for a question mark. Chloe nodded eagerly and spoke

"Yes." They smiled widely at each other for a few moments before Beca wrote on the whiteboard again

_Can you teach me more sign language?_

Chloe took her own marker and wrote directly underneath Beca's question, assuring the brunette that she would love to help her learn sign language. So she did.

**Thanks for reading! As always, reviews are appreciated :D**


	5. Comfort

**This chapter is mostly backstory and some snippets of Beca and Chloe's relationship to help set up the next chapter. Thanks for reading! please review!**

It was an interesting feeling, walking hand in hand with another person. Beca had never been one for affection of any kind, but she was finding it almost second nature to have Chloe's fingers filling the space between her own. Chloe was used to using body language as exactly that... a language. Beca relied on words, and sarcasm, and defensiveness. Chloe was very different. She liked it that way. They were headed back to Aubrey and Chloe's apartment from the diner just off Barden's campus that had become their usual spot. They did a lot together: watching movies with subtitles, practicing sign language, and reading together. Well... Chloe would read while Beca browsed Tumblr, or worked on mixes, or sometimes looked through her philosophy notes.

"Books won't kill you." Chloe had said, teasing her one afternoon when they were lounging on her and Aubrey's couch, Beca's legs in Chloe's lap as the redhead pretended to read 'The Madman's daughter' while she was actually just watching Beca who was making faces at her MacBook as she tried to get two songs to go together. She'd found herself talking a lot more around Beca than anyone else. They found themselves in Chloe and Aubrey's shared apartment a lot, mainly when the blonde wasn't home... sometimes resulting in impromptu sleepovers. It had taken a while, but they'd gotten comfortable with each other. The first time Beca had spent the night they'd been watching an Italian movie, the plot had escaped Beca due to the fact that Chloe was lying on top of her, head on her chest, arms around her midsection, legs tangled together. It was right. It was them. Unable to focus on the movie, Beca found herself humming a mix that she'd been working on earlier. Chloe couldn't hear Beca speak, or sing, or even hum, but with her head on the small brunette's chest she could feel the vibrations of the tune she was humming, which had ended up lulling her to sleep, Beca following not too far behind. Aubrey found herself smiling as she entered the apartment later that night, finding herself not minding Beca that much. Sure, the DJ made herself at home in HER home, but Aubrey had to appreciate the fact that Beca cooked a lot. Coming home to the smell of homemade eggplant parm or pad thai would be appealing to almost anyone. Plus, Beca made Chloe happy. Really happy. Like a smile on her face all the time for absolutely no reason happy.

Chloe was thrilled that someone (Beca in particular) didn't let the fact that she couldn't hear prevent them from wanting to be with her... but there was still the underlying fear that her lack of hearing might cause their relationship to have bumps... or maybe end entirely. Whenever she'd bring up how hard it must be for Beca to date a deaf girl, the brunette would protest strongly and kiss Chloe to shut her up, telling her that she was amazing, hearing or no hearing. And then Chloe's fear that Beca would grow tired of dealing with her disability would go away... or a little while at least. Beca knew that they'd have to talk about it eventually, but she was nervous to ask about how she went deaf in the case of the redhead reading too much into the question and worrying, or worse, breaking up with her. But eventually, she'd asked during one of their reading sessions, comfortable on Chloe's bed. The redhead was slightly taken aback, but answered that she'd lost her hearing when she was 8. It started with an ear infection that she attributed to swimmers ear from being on the swim team at the community pool.

_**I ignored it**_ she wrote into a nearby notebook **_It was an ear infection and it hurt, but I was too stubborn to take antibiotics for it, and eventually I heard less and less. I kept getting in trouble with my parents because they thought I wasn't listening to them... but I just couldn't hear them. They took me to the doctor, and we found out I had damage to the structure of my middle ear, which resulted in rare permanent damage._** Beca nodded her understanding as Chloe finished writing in the notebook. She'd pressed a kiss to the taller girls' temple and went back to reading her book, slipping her hand right hand into Chloe's left, her thumb absentmindedly rubbing circles. She knew how big it was for Chloe to confide that in her, and it was that moment that she realized that she was in love with her. 6 months, countless foreign films, lunch dates throughout the week, post it's with cute little notes left around each other's rooms, many walks across the quad hand in hand, and Beca was in love.

***BUZZ* **

**NEW MESSAGE FROM BECA **

a grin crept onto Chloe's face as she swiped across her screen to unlock it. Her message form Beca read:

_Hey babe, I saw this cool thing on Pinterest where you can use a special kind of paint and turn a wall into a chalkboard, we should do that in your room or in your and Aubrey's kitchen._

Chloe smiled wider at the thought and shot Beca a reply, telling her that she'd love to paint her room this weekend as long as Luke didn't call Beca to come into the station. Chloe laid her phone on her stomach, bringing her arms to rest behind her head, staring up at the ceiling with the glow in the dark stick-on constellations she'd decorated with. It always helped put her thoughts into perspective. Made her remember that no matter how big her issues seemed, that she was small. Significant... but small. Lying under her constillations, she thought about Beca. About what would happen if they stayed together, what would happen if she met her family, what would happen if they got married one day, what would happen if they had kids.

What if.


End file.
